Secret Service Love Affair
by Cora Summers
Summary: Alex decides she wants to run for a political office, but knows that she is going to need some kind of security team, thanks to all the perps that she has helped put away. Alex asks Olivia to be her personal bodyguard. A/O
1. Chapter 1

I don't own the Characters. They are the property of Dick Wolf and NBC.

* * *

Secret Service Love Affair

Olivia sighed, rethinking what she was about to do for what seemed like the millionth time. It seemed as though everything at SVU was becoming a little too much. She was tired of seeing seven year olds as victims. She knew she was burning out. She wanted to do as much as she could to prevent that from happening so that one day she could hopefully return to the Special Victims Unit. Gathering all of her nerve, she knocked on the door in front of her.

"Come in," came the gruff reply. Olivia opened the door to Captain Donald Cragen's office. When he noticed her he motioned for her to take a seat. When she closed the door, he knew it was serious. "What can I do for you Liv?"

"Did you ever work in SVU before you became captain?" Olivia asked. It was technically answering his question. Before she went through with this, she wanted to make sure she wasn't weak.

"Compared to other units, Special Victims is still new, Liv. When I was a detective, we worked a little of everything," Cragen was a little worried. Olivia looked almost defeated. There was something going on here besides general curiosity. "Olivia, are you alright?"

Olivia sighed again. She leaned back in her chair and brought her hands up to cover her eyes. "I don't know," she said. She removed her hands so she could look Cragen in the eyes. "It just seems like everything is getting to me lately. I see little kids in the park and I think of how many of them are scared to go home at night. I got a new neighbor last week and the first thing I wanted to do was see if he was on the sex offenders list. I just don't know what to do anymore."

Cragen had been expecting this from one of his detectives for a long time. The usual "life expectancy" of an SVU detective was two years. Most of the detectives he worked with had been there for almost ten. He was just upset to see that it was his best detective. "You need to do whatever is best for you, Liv. It isn't always about the victim."

Olivia already knew what she wanted to do, she just needed the reassurances. "I think I am going to take a leave of absence."

Cragen nodded. "Any idea how long?"

"I don't know," Olivia sighed. "Is it ok if I just take it and let you know a couple of weeks before I come back?"

Again Cragen nodded. "Don't try and rush it, Olivia. Take a vacation and relax. You'll be back before you know it."

Olivia nodded. "Thanks, Cap'n." She stood up and left the office. As she proceeded to clear her desk and locker, the other detectives of the unit stared at her, either in surprise, confusion, and understanding. Elliot wasn't all that surprised. He had sensed something was off with his partner for a while. He just hoped she wasn't transferring out of the unit permanently.

After her desk and locker were clear, Olivia left the precinct not looking back. It was then that Cragen came out of his office to get the daily updates. "Detective Benson is taking an open ended leave of absence," he informed them. He then went on with the daily meeting, closing the discussion.

Outside, Olivia had just put her things into her car. Getting in the driver's seat, she sat back and sighed. She actually did feel a little better already, but she knew it was going to take time. Maybe she would go on a vacation like Cragen had suggested. She was startled out of her planning when her phone. Out of habit, she ignored the caller id and answered. "Benson."

"Is that anyway to greet your best friend?" The person on the line chuckled.

"Sorry, Alex. It's a habit," Olivia said. She relaxed even more at the sound of Alex's voice.

"I know you're at work right now, Liv, but I have something I wanted to talk to you about," Alex said.

"Actually Alex, I'm taking the day off," Olivia told her. She would tell Alex about the extent of her time off, just not over the phone. "What did you need?"

"Is everything alright Olivia?" Alex asked. Hearing that her friend was taking the day off concerned her. Olivia hated taking time off more than she hated going to the hospital.

"I'm fine Alex," Olivia smiled. ""What did you need?"

"Oh, well I wanted to know if we could possibly meet up for dinner. There is something really important I need to ask you, but I don't want to do it over the phone."

"Yeah, that sounds, fine Alex," Olivia replied. "There is actually something I need to tell you too."

"How about we meet up at my apartment around seven and we can talk then."

"Sounds, great, Alex. I'll talk to you tonight then," Olivia said. She waited for Alex's goodbye and then hung up the phone. Placing it back on her belt, Olivia put the car into gear and drove away for the 16th precinct for who knew how long.


	2. Chapter 2

for disclaimers, see chapter one.

* * *

At five to seven there was a knock on the apartment door. Getting up off the sofa, Alex took a deep breath as she made her way to the door. She had been thinking all afternoon how she was going to tell Olivia what she wanted.

After coming back from the witness protection program she had gone back to prosecuting cases for the Special Victims Unit. After seeing how the squad reacted to her presence during the Connors' trial, Casey had been more than willing to give up her position and move onto major cases, a position that would have been Alex's if she had wanted it. She turned it down though. She had wanted to come home and home to Alexandra Cabot was the SVU.

The papers had sung her praises for months after her return. As they had already dubbed Olivia as the angel of the NYPD, she became the angel of the District Attorney's office. Whenever they were written about together they were often referred to as SVU's angels. They had all gotten a big kick out of it. The boys had taken to calling them Cherubim and Seraphim whenever they closed a case. As the male detectives never actually specified who was who, Alex and Olivia would often argue about it jokingly, although it was more giving their reasons for who they thought the other one was. Most of the time the conversation would lead to them wanting another woman on the squad just so they could call themselves Cragen's angels. By this point though they had often consumed copious amounts of alcohol and were not in complete control of their senses.

After hearing her story, many people and given reporters quotes about how it was nice to see a person who was willing to go the distance in order to achieve justice. This led to Alex being approached by several people about the prospect of running for political office. After a little bit of pressure, she had hesitantly agreed, but made it very clear she would be keeping her position with the D.A's office. Now all she had to do was break it to the squad that there was a chance she would be leaving, starting with Olivia.

Alex took a look out the peephole to make sure it was her friend before she opened the door. Satisfied, she opened the door to see her grinning best friend holding a bottle of her favorite wine. "Hi," she greeted Olivia with a kiss on the cheek and a smile of her own. She took the bottle of wine and made her way back into the apartment, knowing Olivia would follow.

Olivia did follow. As she was taking off her leather jacket, she took a deep breath to still her quickly beating heart. She both hated and loved when Alex greeted her like that. She was always tempted to make the kiss far more intimate, but knew it was probably as close to a physical relationship she would get with the blonde attorney. She had admitted a long time ago that she was in love with Alex. Even before Alex had been shot. At first it had started out as a strong case of lust, enhanced by the fact that Alex was extremely sexy when she was angry. Olivia would never admit it, but she would pick fights with the young ADA just to see her angry.

The lust was replaced by respect and an attraction on an emotional level when she realized that Alex could hold her own in the unit. No matter how badly a case got to her, Alex always came back the next day and was ready for the next one. Olivia never asked how she had worked through it, but when they became friends they started to talk about their issues with the cases together.

Alex new Olivia was gay and was fine with it, but as far as Olivia new Alex's tastes didn't swing her way. Something that mildly annoyed her. Olivia hated perpetuating lesbian stereotypes but she had managed to fall into one of the most known. She was the lesbian with the straight best friend and fallen for straight best friend, thus ruining what once was a very good friendship. But Olivia refused to let that happen to her and Alex, so she refused to let Alex know how deeply she actually cared.

Hanging up her jacket, Olivia made her way into the main room at the same time Alex returned with two glasses of wine. "I already had this chilling," Alex explained. "We can have the other with dinner."

"That's fine," Olivia said as she sat on the sofa and accepted the glass from Alex. "Where are we ordering from?" she asked as she leafed through a magazine she found on the coffee table.

Even though Olivia couldn't see her, Alex put on a face of offense. "What makes you think that I am not cooking dinner for my best friend?"

Not looking up from the magazine, Olivia didn't miss a beat. "Because the smoke alarm hasn't gone off yet."

Even though she knew it was coming, Olivia allowed Alex to hit her with the pillow. Alex knew that Olivia had let the hit happen, but she still got a little satisfaction out of it. They both knew that Alex couldn't cook, but Olivia took great joys in bringing it up every now and again. "Fine," Alex huffed. "You caught me. Now do you want Chinese or Italian?" she asked as she produced two take out menus, holding one in each hand for Olivia to pick one.

"Well, I had Chinese for lunch, so Italian if that's alright with you," Olivia replied.

"That's fine. The wine you brought will go perfectly with that," Alex said. She turned to go place their orders as they always got the same thing, but turned back around when a sudden thought came to her. "But you already knew that, didn't you detective?" she asked in her prosecutor voice.

"Guilty as charged, Ms. Cabot," Olivia smiled sweetly.

"Because I am in the mood for their chicken cacciatore, you're forgiven this time, Detective Benson. But you are taking me out for dessert afterwards."

"You have yourself a deal, Ms. Cabot," Olivia laughed.

Alex smiled in response and continued on to the kitchen to place the orders. Both women were hoping that the easy, comfortable atmosphere continued after they told the other the news they had to share.


	3. Chapter 3

See chapter one for disclaimers

* * *

Dinner had been an easy going affair. Conversation flowed from random topic to random topic, each one avoiding the subject of work. Olivia didn't want Alex to ask what cases they had worked that day and Alex didn't want Olivia to question her about how close certain cases were to going to trial. They each wanted to tell the other, and in Alex's case, ask Olivia a favor, but they weren't sure how it would go over.

They had decided to go to the ice cream place that was just around the block from Alex's apartment. Once they had their orders, Alex knew it was time to stop stalling and just get it over with. She was given a moment of reprieve however when she noticed that Olivia looked nervous about something.

"Hey, Liv, you ok?" Alex asked.

Olivia drew in a deep breath, knowing it was time to face the music. "Alex, I need to tell you something, but you have to let me finish before you say anything, or I might not be able to get it all out."

Alex nodded, making Olivia a little more nervous now that she was going to have to tell her.

"I'm taking some time off," Olivia said.

"Like a vacation?" Alex asked, not seeing what the big deal was. If anyone from the unit deserved a vacation it was Olivia.

"No, like a leave of absence. An extended leave of absence to be exact," Olivia continued. She then proceeded to tell Alex all of what she had been feeling about her work, the meeting with Cragen that same morning, and apologized that she didn't talk to her sooner. "So now if you want to vent about a case, you're actually going to have to explain it to me, because I won't already know what's going on."

At Olivia's last statement, Alex looked at her almost guiltily. "Well…" she began.

"Alex?" Olivia asked. She had never seen Alex shy away from a topic of discussion before, just craftily steer the conversation away from it if she didn't want to talk about it, so she knew something was up.

"I'm no longer going to be prosecuting cases for the Special Victims Unit," Alex said.

"What?!" Olivia exclaimed. She then looked around the ice cream shop to see if she had attracted any attention. Thankfully they were currently the only occupants. Turning back to Alex, Olivia waited for an explanation.

"I've been approached to run for a political office, and I've decided I want to try," Alex said. She was about to continue when Olivia interrupted.

"Alex, you're the best ADA we've ever had. How can you leave some rookie to prosecute the kinds of cases we see every day?"

"And you're the best detective the unit has, yet you're ok with taking a leave of absence?" Alex argued.

"I'm not the best, Olivia scoffed.

"Of course you are Olivia," Alex said. "How many of the other detectives can get a victim to come out of their shell and talk about their attack? I've seen you get a woman who has been abused for years and trusts no one talk to you in a matter of minutes. You are the only one I trust when you ask for a warrant on a gut instinct because you are always right."

"They only trust me because I'm a woman," Olivia said, brushing off the praise. "But that still leaves the guys having to break in a rookie."

"Not necessarily," Alex smiled. "Abbie Carmichael has graciously accepted Jack's invitation to cover my case load throughout the campaign, but he'll be looking for a permanent replacement for if I win. If I lose, we'll either split the case load, or she will become my second."

Why do I get the feeling that's not all you want to tell me?" Olivia asked. She had known that Alex wanted to try and run for a political office at some point, so the news was not a surprise. What she couldn't understand was why Alex had been so nervous about telling her.

"Because it isn't," Alex smirked. "I had something to ask you, but I wasn't sure how you would answer. Now that you've taken a leave of absence, though, I'm hopeful for your answer," Alex took a deep breath as Olivia looked on expectantly. "I've been told that thanks to the amount of people I've prosecuted, I could be in danger from being in the public eye so much, and it's been recommended that I have a security team."

"You want me to give you a few names?" Olivia asked, not really seeing what this had to do with her.

"Actually, I was thinking that you could be my head of security," Alex said hopefully.

As soon as those words had left the blonde attorney's lips, Olivia's mind flashed back to that night not so long ago. Walking out of the restaurant; the squeal of the tires on the black SUV; three consecutive pops; Alex laying still on the sidewalk; blood from the wound in her shoulder oozing out as Olivia tried to stem the flow of blood. All these things that took minutes to take place in real life flashed before her eyes in a matter of seconds. If she couldn't save Alex that night, how was she going to be responsible for her all the time?

Alex, as if knowing what was going through the detective's mind interrupted her thoughts. Placing her hand atop Olivia's, she spoke clearly and calmly. "That wasn't your fault Olivia. No one could have known he was going to take a hit out on me. I have complete faith that you will protect me."

"Are you sure about this, Alex?" Olivia asked, still uncertain.

"Absolutely," Alex grinned.

Taking a calming breath, Olivia hesitantly returned the smile. "Alright, let's do this."


	4. Chapter 4

See chapter one for disclaimers

* * *

Walking into down the familiar corridor to office number 208, Olivia kept thinking what she had gotten herself into. Of course she would do everything in her power to keep the blonde attorney safe, even if it meant sacrificing her own life to do so. The only thing Olivia worried about was if she couldn't protect Alex before, how could she do it now? _This is different,_ Olivia thought to herself. _We didn't know there was anything she needed to be protected from before. Now it's my job to look for the threats._ Finally having convinced herself she could do the job in front of her, she softly knocked on the office door.

"Come in," she heard called from the inside.

She opened the door and saw Alex standing at her desk, or at least what once was her desk, in blue jeans, and a Harvard hooded sweatshirt with her hair pulled back in a pony tail. If it was possible, Olivia thought Alex looked even better in her casual attire than she did in her power suits. She was just about to greet the blond when she was pulled into a quick hug by an equally tall brunette.

"How ya doin, Ben?" came the smoky voice of her assailant.

Olivia smiled when her mind caught up with what had happened. "I'm good, Tex. Tired of DC already?" she asked as she returned the hug.

"Something like that," Abbie replied. I'm taking a chance I should have taken years ago."

At the evasive answer, Alex looked confused, but after a moment, realization dawned Olivia. "Are you and Casey back on?" she asked. The two lawyers had been involved in an on again off again relationship up until Abbie's sudden acceptance of the Assistant U.S. Attorney position. Not many people close to the two women had known what had happened, but Olivia, having been close friends with both women, had eventually gotten both sides of the story. Casey wanted something permanent while Abbie didn't believe she could handle that. When it appeared as there wouldn't be another "on again," Abbie had accepted the federal position she had been offered months before. Now it appeared as though she was going to give it a shot.

Abbie smiled and nodded her head in answer to her question. "Casey told me she's been waiting for me to pull my head outta my ass since I left."

"Abbie that's great," Alex finally chimed in. She had never been that close to the southern brunette, she had gotten to know Casey in her time back. She knew that Abbie still held a large part of the red head's heart and was glad to see they were finally giving what they had a real chance.

"We both thought so too," Abbie replied. "We're getting together later this week to talk about where we want to go from here; whether we want to pick up where we left off or just pretend to start over, give us a clean slate."

Alex gave her substitute a warm smile and turned her eyes, to Olivia. Not for the first time, she took in the appearance of other brunette. Not for the first time, she contemplated a few things. The first being how she came to be the only straight woman in her circle of friends. It didn't bother her of course. They were always respectful and all compliments were devoid of any flirtation, it was just an interesting thing she noticed of her life. The second was why in the world Olivia was still single. Even if she could admit that Olivia was extremely attractive. What women in her right mind wouldn't want her? Not only was she beautiful, but also honest, passionate, compassionate, amazing with kids, and seemed to always put others before herself. Alex internally laughed at herself. It almost sounded as though she was attracted to her best friend. She realized though, that they never talked about Olivia's personal life. Alex would always fill the brunette in on her latest attempt at romance, but Olivia stayed quiet. Alex wondered what her type was or if she even had someone in her sights. _Maybe all the extra time together will reveal something_, she thought to herself.

"Hi, Liv," Alex smiled. "You wanna give us a hand?"

"Sure," Olivia responded. "What are we doing?"

"Out with the old and in with the new," Abbie answered, earning a mock glare from the young blonde.

"May I remind you, Carmichael, you are four years older than I am," Alex responded evenly. The other two women broke out into a fit of laughter at the seriousness on the blonde's face, causing her to laugh as well. "What our friend here is trying to say," Alex said when she finally regained her composure, "is that we are cleaning out my things to make room for her things."

"Don't forget my stash of Swedish Fish in your bottom drawer," Olivia said as she started to help pack up the office.

"Why are you hiding candy in the ADA's office, Ben?" Abbie asked with a confused expression on her face.

"Because if I hid them in the squad room with the boys, they'd find them and then I wouldn't have a stash anymore," Olivia smiled.

"Liv, you're the best detective in that unit. I'm sure you can find a hiding place that even those guys can't find."

"Why does everyone think that?" Olivia asked, more to herself than anyone else. "You forget that they're men. When the stomach's involved, those three morph into Monk without the OCD."

Abbie dipped her head, knowing Olivia was right. Shaking her head, she lifted it up and turned to Alex. "I don't know how you do it, Alex," Abbie said. "How can you put up with men on more than a professional or friendly level?" Abbie knew how Olivia felt about the blonde, even if the stoic detective had never told her directly. When you knew someone as long as she and Olivia had known each other, it was easy to see how the other was feeling at times. This was one of those.

"Lately, I haven't been able to," Alex replied with a frown. "They've all been so boring or heard I was running for office and want to piggy back on my campaign to jumpstart a future in politics for themselves. Just once I want someone to look at as something other than political arm candy."

_Just give me the chance,_ Olivia thought. "Don't worry, Alex," she said. "You'll find someone who appreciates you the way you should be appreciated." She hadn't looked up from what she was doing as she spoke so she missed the shocked look on Abbie's face and the small smile that appeared on Alex's face. Abbie hadn't expected Olivia say anything like that, while the words brought an unexpected warmth to the blonde. If she thought about that reaction too much though, it could make things confusing for her and awkward for the both of them so instead she brushed it off with a joke.

Yeah, until you scare him off with your perfected 'bad cop' routine," Alex laughed.

"If he can't take the heat, he needs to stay outta the kitchen," Olivia chuckled. "And if I happen to run a run his name through a few data bases, it's only because I care about you."

"I know, Liv," Alex replied. Feeling the mood growing serious, she decided to try and break it. "Come on. Let's get this finished up and I'll treat you guys to coffee."

"Deal," the brunettes replied in unison, causing everyone to laugh once again. They then got back to business and continued with the work at hand.


End file.
